RTW, hybrid, flexible schedules, burnout, engagement…

How many times have you heard those words this week and as leaders of growth stage companies, asked the question, “What can we do?” And how do you trade off the benefits and flexibility we want to give to our people with the demands of a growth stage company that has so little redundancy and such big goals? At Cleo, where our whole mission and product are centered around one of the most vulnerable and burnt out parts of your workforce (who are often your managers), we have a lot to say and do about taking care of the whole family health of our members.

But we also have to take care of one another as a small team of 170 people, who are 83% women and majority parents. The truth is, it’s far from easy and there are no quick fixes. As we roll into summer and into the highs and lows of this post-Covid period, we knew we had to break the mold and make bold decisions for the mental health, engagement, and overall long term success of our team. We’re hoping by open sourcing our efforts, we can also learn from other growth stage companies and all do better by our people while we hit our growth goals.

New programs we’re rolling out to compliment our standard benefits:

• Summer reset: Mandatory Summer break the week after July 4th so employees can rest and recharge without the feeling they’re “missing something” with other coworkers continuing to be in the office
• No meeting Fridays all Summer to allow for better flexibility for all, especially parents with children at home
• Biweekly Sharing/Listening Circles hosted by our amazing partner Charisse Fontes and her Culture Circle team
• Programming and workshops to educate, support, and alleviate burnout and imposter syndrome

Cleo’s benefits:

• A culture of flexibility and embracing the realities parenting at every level—executives normalize caring for their families, from pick up/drop off, to real time parenting or home schooling
• Job protected and paid leave for birth and non-birth parents
• Family planning benefits for adoption, surrogacy, IVF, and egg freezing
• Cleo for Cleo—all employees have access to all Cleo products, and we use it!
• Free membership to UrbanSitter, Ginger, and Headspace
• Children’s programming—parents and their children can join for story time with the authors via Zoom with books like Humanity the Manatee and Drag Queen Story Hour for Pride month
• Flexible PTO so we can use the time we need when we need it, plus a culture where leaders encourage and expect employees to take time off

We can’t predict what the world will look like in 6 months, so we’re testing new things and learning as we go. As we experiment, we’ll keep sharing what works—and what doesn’t. Next, we’ll let you know how Cleo’s thinking about the return to an office and our plans for hybrid work.

We’d love to hear from you on what you’re trying out and learning—or any feedback you have on our plans.

Let’s reset to better!
SJ

P.S. If this sounds like the kind of team you want to be a part of, we’re hiring!